I've been told that most carpenters place the bottom door hinge further from the bottom than the top hinge is from the top. Why? Mine are the same (as fitted by whoever was here before me, and I've just replaced doors and hinges in the same place), and look correct. Why make them unsymmetrical?
I think it's down to local custom, it varies from country to country.
It's been suggested that fitting the lower one higher makes them look symmetrical from the point of view of an adult of standard stature, but IMO you would need to have a serious case of OCD to be bothered.
Or severely lacking in brain function. Your brain should compensate for distances. You don't look at cows in a field and think they're 2cm apart.
You read my mind.
rom the bottom than the top hinge is from the top. Why? Mine are the same (as fitted by whoever was here before me, and I've just replaced doors and hinges in the same place), and look correct. Why make them unsymmetrical?
It's because the forces involved in top and bottom hinges are not identical .
Theoretically they are even more dissimilar if there are three hinges. So the ideal positions are even more assymetrical.
With two, three, or a dozen hinges, the vertical thrust is likley to be taken by one.
This is true. It is, however, quite complicated because either hinge can be supporting the full vertical load (or they can be sharing it).
I tend to find it best to fit the bottom hinge first, so that it is supporting the weight. Then it is easier to swing the top of the door in to locate the hinge in the rebate. As you swing it in, it takes the weight off your wedge so this is now easy to remove. Also, it's easier to have the bottom hinge a bit higher so you don't have to bend down so far when making the rebate in the stile.
No, with three hinges there is overconstraint so the loads are indeterminate.
Plenty of opinions and custom and practice here:
Now that's getting to sound like the sort of slopey optical illusion thing that the ancient Greeks used to do on their stone columns.
I'm not sure what this web page is actually saying about the forces on a two hinge door. It seems to be saying the forces are not known but that's contrary to common sense.
Where common sense comes in is that you normally fit one hinge (usually the bottom) more securely first, so that this takes most if not all of the normal load. Variations might then occur, for example if your upper rebate is a bit too high, so that as you tighten the top hinge it ends up taking the weight off the bottom. The horizontal forces associated with the moment do not change.
That wasn't for optical illusion of straightness, that was either to make the columns structurally stronger, or to make them look stronger.
Best to have them look symmetrical and have the hinges strong enough to be put in those positions.
Really? I can see the twisting action (because the door's centre of gravity isn't where the door frame is) pulling mainly on the top one, but vertical load should be even on all of them.
I just hold the door up with wedges (or the other person if one is available) so it's in the right place, then install both hinges in any order. There is no strain on any hinge until the wedges are removed.
Explain.
All I can see is the incorrect assumption that the human brain can't tell the real distance, and also that it makes the door stronger (I can't see that just by moving it 3 inches).
Surely if you end up with one hinge taking all the vertical load, if it can't take that much load, it will bend/dislodge slightly (a mm) until the load is evenly spread onto the other hinge. If it doesn't, then well it can handle the load by itself anyway.
Maybe we're talking at crossed purposes. I meant the entasis thing.
If I am using two wedges I will remove the inner one before finally tightening the lower hinge. The outer one will be positioned so that the door tilts out very slightly so that when I tighten the top one, it lifts the door off the outer wedge. But often I will manage with just one, in the "outer" position.
It's just the way I have always done it. With light doors, you don't even need wedges. And you can do those top hinge first, it's just that there is more scope to pinch fingers at the bottom.
See Pamela's link to the engineering web site
There is no reason at all why the vertical load should be even. That is even true if you put a horizontal beam on three supports (although it is even if you put it symmetrically on two supports).
And now the prick is arguing about door hinges ffs.
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